Royals lose a stinker, 8-1

It did not take long for things to go wrong for Ian Kennedy, today. Yoan Moncada doubled to left with one out in the bottom of the first and Avisail Garcia hsit a no-doubter to right-center. I’m serious, the outfielders barely even budged. That turned out to be all the Chicago White Sox needed to win this game, but not all they would score.

The Royals answered a few innings later in the fourth with their lone bright spot when Lorenzo Cain lined a solo shot two rows deep into left field. At the time it cut the lead in half. Of course, in the bottom of the inning, Ian Kennedy allowed Kevan Smith (not to be confused with noted nerd and director Kevin Smith) to take the run back with another no-doubt blast, this time to left-center.

Kennedy wasn’t done allowing damage, either, but there is only so much self-harm even Royals fans should inflict upon themselves. His final line was 5.1 innings pitched with 5 earned runs. He did strike out 7 but also walked 2 and allowed 2 home runs which extended his “team leading” total to 33. Only 8 pitchers in all of baseball had allowed more than Kennedy before the start of the game. All but 2 of those have used at least 20 more innings to accomplish the feat.

Kevin McCarthy managed to allow 3 more runs to make sure the game was out of reach, Mike Morin pitched a scoreless eighth. Lucas Giolito looked like the highly touted prospect he is in pitching 7 innings allowing only the single run.

The Royals needed a sweep this series and instead lost it 2 games to 1. The Twins also won, today. The Royals’ elimination number is now 2. They play the Yankees in New York to make up for a rain out, tomorrow.